


A Bargain Struck

by glowingsunset



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-08
Updated: 2016-12-08
Packaged: 2018-09-07 06:28:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8787175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glowingsunset/pseuds/glowingsunset
Summary: Pike does the only thing she can do - save her friends.





	

There was something to be said of this small family they had made of themselves, the seven of them, all pulled from different walks of life, saved by one another at some point in their travels. It wasn't necessarily pulled from death each time, but they had saved each other in so many different ways: mentally, emotionally. They might not all be the same blood, but they were family. 

But evil doesn't see family, doesn't see bonds forged amidst trial and tribulation. They see someone trying to stop what they are so desperate to achieve, good against evil and anyone be damned if they are stopped. The enemy didn't matter at this point, their plots and plans didn't matter. All she knew was that they were dead and they weren't going to be hurting anyone else. Not like they had hurt her family, her brothers and sisters.

She allowed herself a moment to breathe, to wipe away the trickle of blood from her brow and open her eyes. Her hands shook breath catching in her lungs at the sight. They were all- she had hoped at least one of them had survived, one of them had managed to get out of the way of death and flame and survive. It had been too much to ask, too much to even dare to dream or hope. Her family was gone, and knees met the scorched ground and she let out a strangled sob. 

Hands met the ground soon after, Pike let her head hang low. "Please, please- help them, I'll do anything-" But Sarenrae was quiet, because this wasn't her domain. The Dawnflower wept for her charge, unable to do more. 

But there was another way, Pike thought. And she prayed once more, this time to a different goddess, one her friend had succumbed to months ago. "I know you can hear me, and I beseech you. Please, please, I'll do anything. They- they don't deserve to die, not like this. I don't have enough power to bring them all back!" Pike sobbed openly, words choking in her throat. 

There was silence for minutes, what seemed like a lifetime to Pike. And then a quiet voice, like it was whispered behind her, into her ear ever so quietly. "Do you want power, sweet one? It is something I cannot give."

"No- no, I don't want that." She sniffles, one hand reaching up to wipe at her nose, the glove under her gauntlet wet from her tears. "Me for them. I've lived my life, redeemed my family. They all have so much left to do in this world, so much to live for. They love, they laugh, they help. I've done all I can to keep them safe, let me do this last thing for them, please."

The Raven Queen was silent once again as she mulled over Pike's words. It was something Pike had never thought of until now, sacrificing herself for the others. It wasn't fair for them to die when they still had so much, when she had found herself and was content with her life now. Let them mourn one, instead of her mourning six.

"Say your goodbyes." Came the goddess' vague reply, and Pike took it as the Raven Queen's refusal. Her eyes closed tighter, tears seeping out from the corners of her eyes. It had been a wild gambit, something the others would have been proud of her for. Work the system, Scanlan and Percy would have said. What Pike failed to notice, however, was the light, barely discernible cough a few feet away from her, Scanlan sitting up from his sprawled out form in the rubble. "Oi, Pike, you alright?"

Pike's head shot up at the sound, then pulled herself into a kneeling position. One by one her friends awakened from the cold grasp of death, and her smile widened even more. They were alive, they were- "You're all safe," she managed, voice weak. "I'll see you all soon."

And before anyone else could reply, a gust of wind took Pike's last breath from her lungs. Her eyes closed gently, and her small form fell backward toward the ground, still and cold. A bargain struck.


End file.
